Walk into Town. Yes!

August 13

I buy three lined notebooks as if I have something of great import to say or maybe I am going to write " the great American novel". 
   
 But today is a marker of a day….. even if I don't write about it.  

It's the first day since May 28  that I have walked down the street to the bus on both legs…. "sans" crutches,  sans boots or straps.  

My intention was to take the bus to the center of town and then walk up to FNAC where there is always the best selection of lined notebooks in town,( not quadrilled… as the French prefer) , then proceed back down.  

  Now, after an hour or so of standing and browsing in Fnac I have made my way down to Starbucks in Nice Etoile.   I need an excuse to sit down and Starbucks is the only place where I can order half real coffee and half decaf in the same cup. 

Its 11am in Starbucks and everyone is having a sweet: a muffin , a piece of carrot cake with his coffee.  Still, no one in the bar is "as big as a house" as you find now in America.    But I am afraid I have seen the tendency of corpulence even here.  We now see husky teenagers and children in France that we didn't see 20 years ago.  All these snack bars along Jean Medecin are not helping.  It's too easy now to stroll and "grignoter" ( to nibble).  But a snack at 11H00 is a simple pleasure and it seems harmless enough once in a while. 

The 3 months of a useless ankle have left me rudderless in more than one way.  Not being able to walk properly felt final, as if it were the edge of not being able to do other important things….like create, or think, or go out on one's own again.   

A strange dullness took over during my convalescence and all I wanted to do was sit in the garden and pull the weeds. ( Maybe this is a metaphor. ha!)  But today I feel hopeful.  

 My ultimate destination for today is to see Steve McCurry's photography exhibition at Le Theatre de la Photographie at 27 Blvd Dubuchage. 

 I am guessing that walking and gazing at his work will inspire me and get some oxygen to my brain.   

 Maybe I will fill the notebooks after all.   Ankles crossed.